HTC One SMS/MMS Question

[ddillon80]

My HTC One seems like it will let me compose an SMS message that will go on forever. I was just playing around to see what the actual max number of characters I could send was so I started a new text and just kept tapping a letter until I got to 900 characters then it switched to show I was using 1KB of 2KB and I just gave up at that point, however I do frequently send my friends texts that go over 160 characters and they tell me they receive the texts in individual 160 character separate messages whether I am texting someone with an Android or Apple phone. When this happens the messages always seem to arrive in a speedy fashion and in the correct order, however my friends w/ iPhones ask me why my texts are being broken down into multiple 160 character messages because when they receive texts from other iPhones that go over 160 characters they receive the message as one complete text that does not get split up. I guess that must be an iPhone-texting-to-iPhone thing because I have always thought SMS messages that go over 160 characters get split up.

Now, I just switched to Android in May of this year. Prior to that I was a die-hard BlackBerry fan and I remember if I wanted to text someone over 160 characters I simply choose to MMS them instead of SMS'ing them even though I was not actually sending them any media, and although I can't remember the exact number of characters doing this allowed, I believe you could send someone a single continuous text (sent as an MMS) containing something like 1000 characters and that was on my 5-year old BB Curve.

Now getting back to the HTC One - a few questions:

1) Is there a way to send people SMS texts > 160 characters whether they have an Android or Apple device and not have the message be split up into individual 160 character blocks?
AND
2) If the answer to question #1 is no, is there any way to do something like my old BB Curve could do and send an SMS message disguised as an MMS message w/o actually attaching any media so messages > 160 characters do not get split up?

If if the answer to both of these questions is no then there is an app that will allow this? Sorry for the long, and possibly confusing post, but I tried my best to explain what I'm talking about. Any answers, suggestions, feedback or advice will be appreciated. Thank you

 

[SouthTex]

When i was using my iphone,i would text a friend who had an iphone as well an long messages over 160 would always get broken up. They never were full complete messages an the same with messages sent to me from their iphone. I have yet to try with android to iphone an vice versa.

 

[ddillon80]

When i was using my iphone,i would text a friend who had an iphone as well an long messages over 160 would always get broken up. They never were full complete messages an the same with messages sent to me from their iphone. I have yet to try with android to iphone an vice versa.

That's weird. I just had a friend over who has an iPhone 5 and he swears when his wife or daughter text him > 160 characters he receives it all as a single message. I also have another friend w/ an iPhone 5 and he says when his GF, who also has an iPhone 5, sends him a long text it doesn't get broken up. The whole issue came up for me today when I texted this same person about 500 characters and he called me back asking why my text message was getting broken up. I told him all SMS messages do if they are > 160 characters and that's when he told me it never happens to him when he receives SMS texts > 160 from other iPhone devices so IDK.

On another note does anyone know about my BB question and getting around the 160 character limit by sending an MMS instead of an SMS w/o actually attaching any media. Actually never mind cuz I don't think it will work. I just started a test text and attached a pic and it said "converting to MMS message" then I removed the pic and it converted it back to an SMS message. So I guess you just can't do this w/ the One unless maybe you're rooted...IDK.

 

[ddillon80]

Giving this thread a bump but this time I will make it short and sweet. Does anyone know if there is a messaging app that allows you to send an SMS text > 160 characters BUT delivers the message to the recipient in one big single message as opposed to breaking-up the message into individual messages of 160 characters each?

 

[SouthTex]

Giving this thread a bump but this time I will make it short and sweet. Does anyone know if there is a messaging app that allows you to send an SMS text > 160 characters BUT delivers the message to the recipient in one big single message as opposed to breaking-up the message into individual messages of 160 characters each?

So i just tested this out with the htc one. I texted an iphone 4S a bunch of letters that added up to 500 character. On the htc one it shows a number ''4'' because i was starting the 4th 160 character count. I sent it to the 4S an it got it all in one message,nothing was broken up.

 

[SouthTex]

Just sent 500 characters back to the htc one from the 4S an it was also one complete message nothing broken up.

 

[adriandb]

Is this carrier dependent?

 

[srkmagnus]

The carrier is one thing to consider. I've received long text messages from iPhone devices that come up as split messages. The only time I've received a MMS is if the the text includes a few photos.

 

[SouthTex]

Im on At&t and the iphone 4S i tried this with is At&t as well an they both kept the message as one long single text. I do have a friend who is on Sprint an when they use to text me to my 4S with a long message,it was split up. So im guessing its how carriers handle it?

 

[ddillon80]

After doing my own testing, conferring w/ friends that own both Android & iPhone devices and now hearing what some of you are seeing from your own tests I think I am fairly certain this is carrier, not device, specific. I am w/ Sprint and it seems they split up SMS texts into individual blocks of 160 characters no matter how long the total message is and no matter what the device is. I am less certain about how the 3 other major carriers deliver texts > 160 characters but there is obviously at least one that goes with the single, long not split-up option.

It also seems like you can go on w/ an SMS message virtually forever w/ the HTC One. Just because I was curious and bored I actually tapped a single character for what seemed like an eternity and it allowed me to go up to 900 characters. Once it hit 900 it still didn't stop but instead switched to say I was at 1KB out of a max available 2KB. I stopped at 900 because sending a text that long is insane anyway. This was all really just a curiosity thing for me. This might sound ironic coming from the guy who started this thread but I'm actually not a big fan of texting. I am the type of person that can get very annoyed w/ the constant back 'n forth of texting and will just call the person on the other end if the texting becomes incessant.

Anyway I think we can put this topic to bed now. I think it's fair to say the delivery of broken-up individual messages of 160 characters vs. the long single message when the text goes over 160 characters is dependent on the carrier, not the device.

 

[adriandb]

I've noticed the same thing from friends on Sprint.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4

 

[ddillon80]

I've noticed the same thing from friends on Sprint.

Further evidence that this is carrier specific. One other thing I have noticed when sending test text messages >160 characters to other phones is that sometimes - not every time but sometimes - the recipient receives the split up messages out-of-order. For example if I send someone a text that gets split up and delivered in 3 separate messages that person may receive it as follows:

First 160 characters - (says message 1/3)
Second 160 characters - (says message 3/3)
Third 160 characters or less - (says message 2/3)

I have only noticed this happen occasionally and most of the time the messages are delivered in the correct order and in rapid succession, however the example above will occur from time-to-time. The bottom line and my take-away from all of this is:

1) The split up and/or long single message for texts > 160 characters is carrier specific.
AND
2) There is a reason why SMS stands for "Short Messaging Service" and that is because texts are intended to be short. If you need to send someone a text message > 160 characters then maybe you (myself included ) should shoot them a quick email or dial their number instead.

 

[whoahbro]

Yeah out of order texts blow. I am on sprint and they are out of order a lot when you a) send a text over 160 characters, or b) send several small texts over the course of a minute or two.

Since all my family and most colleagues use iPhones, iMessage has replaced a lot of emailing. Not all, but a lot.

I really wish there was a text app that attempted to remedy this broken/out of sequence sprint problem and got around their mms image suppression.

Sent from my HTCONE using AC Forums mobile app

 

[ddillon80]

Yeah out of order texts blow. I am on sprint and they are out of order a lot when you a) send a text over 160 characters, or b) send several small texts over the course of a minute or two.

Since all my family and most colleagues use iPhones, iMessage has replaced a lot of emailing. Not all, but a lot.

I really wish there was a text app that attempted to remedy this broken/out of sequence sprint problem and got around their mms image suppression.

I have been testing out different apps and methods of sending text messages so the recipient does not receive broken-up blocks of 160 characters each. The problem with this is that sometimes the texts get delivered out-of-sequence and in an untimely manner. There are 2 apps I have tried that seems to fix this problem.

Handcent SMS automatically converts SMS messages > 480 characters to an MMS message and the person on the receiving end should get it as a single uninterrupted message. I have tested this with people who have an Android and iPhone both on the Sprint network and they said the message was not split up. The problem for me is I do not like the Handcent app. It's not refined at all and I prefer the simple clean look of the stock messaging app on the One much better.
.
The other option is Go SMS Pro. The way to avoid having the recipient of your text message not receive it in split-up blocks is to start typing a message. If it happens to go over 160 characters choose the "Add Subject" option below the message. By simply typing a subject to the message it converts it into an MMS message and the recipient should receive it as a single uninterrupted message. Again, the problem for me is I am not crazy about the UI of Go SMS Pro so I tried both of these apps and despite them solving the problem of the split messages I uninstalled both of them because I just prefer the simple clean look of the Sense 5 stock messaging app.

This whole thing is a bit confusing to me as I have read it depends if the network is CDMA or GSM yet when testing this out with friends who have various devices on multiple networks the results have been mixed (i.e. sometimes the messages get split-up and sometimes they don't). I don't know...I give up. I guess the only definite solution is to limit SMS messages to 160 characters.

 

[whoahbro]

Thanks a lot! That helped me!

Sent from my HTCONE using AC Forums mobile app